Tis the season to see Fungi, fa la la la la....

[Fungus]

People eating Fungi ????????

What the Fu.......ng, that's just nuts

 

David,

Eating mushrooms is comparable to consuming insects such as locusts, because fungi are closer related to insects then to plants, as they both depend on the photosynthesis by green plants for their energy (sugars) and both have chitine as a major element of the walls of their cells and the outer layers of their "bodies", which is a sugar polymere "derived" from the sugar polymere cellulose.

[Fungus]

could you enlighten me a little as to how to tell the difference please.

 

Jack,

The main macroscopical difference between Phellinus igniarius and P. robustus is the shape of the perennial brackets. Older, up to 40 x 20 x 15 cm big brackets of Phellinus igniarius mostly are more bracket-like shaped with broad annual growth (see first photo), whereas older up to 25 x 10 x 20 cm big brackets of P. robustus mostly are more compact bulbous to hoof-shaped with more regular annual growth (see second photo). But 100 % sure : microscope.

[sean]

Jack,

The main macroscopical difference between Phellinus igniarius and P. robustus is the shape of the perennial brackets. Older, up to 40 x 20 x 15 cm big brackets of Phellinus igniarius mostly are more bracket-like shaped with broad annual growth (see first photo), whereas older up to 25 x 10 x 20 cm big brackets of P. robustus mostly are more compact bulbous to hoof-shaped with more regular annual growth (see second photo). But 100 % sure : microscope.

 

Thanks Gerrit....

[Fungus]

Thanks Gerrit.

 

Sean,

You're welcome. And here is an example of an old Phellinus igniarius with recently receeding yearly layers (emergency reproduction) typical of willow, of which the heartwood behind the bracket has been white rotted and decomposed completely.

[armybloke]

A good find on my 2nd day at work!

[Fungus]

A good find on my 2nd day at work!

 

Did you collect and eat it ? If so, some years ago in England there has been a case of "poisening" of professional mycologists to the extent that admittance to a hospital was necessary reported, after eating chicken of the woods.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Did you collect and eat it ? If so, some years ago in England there has been a case of "poisening" of professional mycologists to the extent that admittance to a hospital was necessary reported, after eating chicken of the woods.

 

and I bet as always the press stated professional when in fact they was amatuers, amateurs who ate the Laeti fruiting on taxus bacarta no doubt.

[Fungus]

and I bet as always the press stated professional when in fact they was amatuers, amateurs who ate the Laeti fruiting on taxus bacarta no doubt.

 

No, I heard it from the horse's mouth, i.e. English Ph.d. mycologists, not from the (English) press and the "chickens" were collected from oak.

Their seems to be a comparable phenomenon arising as with Tricholoma equestre and/or T. flavovirens, which were from the Middle Ages on, very popular species for consumption treated as an exclusive prerogative for the noble (Tricholoma's in Dutch and German still are called "Knight's mushrooms), but lead in 2000-2001 to the death of six people from France, who turned out to have a genetic predisposition for developing rhabdomyolyses, a disease which degenerates the heart muscle and causes it to stop functioning.

Edited May 5, 2011 by Fungus

[armybloke]

Did you collect and eat it ? If so, some years ago in England there has been a case of "poisening" of professional mycologists to the extent that admittance to a hospital was necessary reported, after eating chicken of the woods.

 

Welcome to the Forum Gerrit and thank you for your other Fungi ident thread. I have been watching with avid interest. All extremely interesting and very enlightening information.

 

To answer your question - no I did not take any for consumption (or pleasure) as I feel these 'forms of beauty' need not to be disturbed but admired

[David Humphries]

Couple of bits from today.

 

Laetiporus (Chicken of the woods) on an Oak bollard

 

& Pluerotus ostreatus (Oyster) on a Birch trunk.

 

.